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Donor kids have right to history: inquiry

Tara Ravens

Children of men who donated sperm aren't after their biological fathers' money, house or even their time.

Most just want to know about the men's medical history and a little about their heritage, a NSW parliamentary inquiry has heard.

Donor children have no right even to basic medical information about their biological fathers, with many clinics stonewalling any form of contact, even letters.

Hearings in Sydney have also been told invaluable files have been destroyed following requests for information.

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The focus has been on the rights of parents and the donors that allow them to bring a child into the world.

It's a situation Geraldine Hewitt, who was five when she was told by her parents that she was donor-conceived, struggles to make sense of.

"How can you sign away the rights of someone who does not even exist," she asked.

"This should have been rectified many,many years ago ...

"To understand your history, to have a well rounded and complete jigsaw puzzle ... we aren't seeking to impose ourselves on somebody's life unnecessarily."

Caroline Lorbach, from the Donor Conception Support Group Australia, is pushing for a centralised register to hold information about donors, who would have the right to veto contact if requested by mothers or children.

The findings of the parliamentary panel, which is also considering the retrospective release of donor information, has massive implications for tens of thousands of children in NSW.

"We're not looking for anything that even hints at a child-parent relationship," Ms Hewitt said.

Ms Hewitt, now 30 and suffering from a hereditary medical condition, has struggled to find out about her biological father because a hospital destroyed her records.

She told the inquiry that only one in 10 donor-conceived children is told the truth, and the information should be made available to others like her once they turned 18.

She described as "sickening" the case of a man who made 358 donations, which paid to get his two daughters through private school.

"We don't allow organs to be bought and sold, we don't allow babies to be bought and sold, so why on earth are we allowing a monetary value to be attached to (this)?"

Sharon Hunt, president of Solo Mums By Choice Australia, said an independent state body should be responsible for managing information, facilitating contact and organising support and counselling for men who gave sperm anonymously only to be contacted later about their donor children.

Sonia Allen, from Deakin University, dismissed fears that children would use a registration system to go after their donor father's money.

"In reality that just isn't the case, but it could clearly be easily addressed by a line in a piece of legislation."

Dr Joel Bernstein, medical director of the clinic Fertility East, said allowing donor children access to their files could open a Pandora's box.

He said much of the information was already lost or deliberately destroyed, while the level of information gathered in the first place was often "atrocious".

He also cautioned against contacting men who believed their donation was anonymous.

"Even the mere thought of breaking the anonymity may have such an impact on their current life, they may not have told their wife what they have done."

Tracking these men down would also be a massive undertaking given many may have moved or not given their real name.

Dr Bernstein, whose clinic only deals with identifiable donors who have signed a legal contract, also rejected the suggestion parents who use sperm donors didn't have the right to speak for their unborn children.

He said children had to bear the brunt of their parents' decisions all the time.